Fight the Treatment Industrial Complex

AFSC-Arizona staff are amazing advocates for prisoners - and as such, are true blessings to our communities. Spend time on their site - lots of resources.

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NATIVE RESISTANCE AND THE CARCERAL STATE

Retiring Arizona Prison Watch...

This site was originally started in July 2009 as an independent endeavor to monitor conditions in Arizona's criminal justice system, as well as offer some critical analysis of the prison industrial complex from a prison abolitionist/anarchist's perspective. It was begun in the aftermath of the death of Marcia Powell, a 48 year old AZ state prisoner who was left in an outdoor cage in the desert sun for over four hours while on a 10-minute suicide watch. That was at ASPC-Perryville, in Goodyear, AZ, in May 2009.

Marcia, a seriously mentally ill woman with a meth habit sentenced to the minimum mandatory 27 months in prison for prostitution was already deemed by society as disposable. She was therefore easily ignored by numerous prison officers as she pleaded for water and relief from the sun for four hours. She was ultimately found collapsed in her own feces, with second degree burns on her body, her organs failing, and her body exceeding the 108 degrees the thermometer would record. 16 officers and staff were disciplined for her death, but no one was ever prosecuted for her homicide. Her story is here.

Marcia's death and this blog compelled me to work for the next 5 1/2 years to document and challenge the prison industrial complex in AZ, most specifically as manifested in the Arizona Department of Corrections. I corresponded with over 1,000 prisoners in that time, as well as many of their loved ones, offering all what resources I could find for fighting the AZ DOC themselves - most regarding their health or matters of personal safety.

I also began to work with the survivors of prison violence, as I often heard from the loved ones of the dead, and learned their stories. During that time I memorialized the Ghosts of Jan Brewer - state prisoners under her regime who were lost to neglect, suicide or violence - across the city's sidewalks in large chalk murals. Some of that art is here.

In November 2014 I left Phoenix abruptly to care for my family. By early 2015 I was no longer keeping up this blog site, save occasional posts about a young prisoner in solitary confinement in Arpaio's jail, Jessie B.

I'm deeply grateful to the prisoners who educated, confided in, and encouraged me throughout the years I did this work. My life has been made all the more rich and meaningful by their engagement.

I've linked to some posts about advocating for state prisoner health and safety to the right, as well as other resources for families and friends. If you are in need of additional assistance fighting the prison industrial complex in Arizona - or if you care to offer some aid to the cause - please contact the Phoenix Anarchist Black Cross at PO Box 7241 / Tempe, AZ 85281. collective@phoenixabc.org

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Pinal County Jail: Demand Dignity, not Detention.

Every first Sunday afternoon from 2-4pm I meet with some of these folks for a letter writing session - they write to the prisoners in detention, and I write to my state prisoners. We meet at the Worker Rights Center at 331 E. Willetta St. in Phoenix, 85004. Feel free to join us - these are some awesome peeps.

The ACLU of Arizona, by the way, put outthis statement in January on the abuses occurring in the Pinal County Jail - it's worth the read, and has links to more comprehensive documents. There's good reason for ICE to terminate the Pinal County Jail's contract to detain people for immigration violations. If you're interested in joining future such vigils asnd other efforts to end immigrant detention and abuse in Arizona, please contact the Arizona Detention Working Group.

Saturday afternoon on March 3rd, thirty-five migrant rights
activists converged on Sheriff Paul Babeu's Pinal County Jail in
Florence, Arizona. This was the fifth monthly vigil meeting at the jail
to bring attention to the conditions under which immigration detainees
are being held.

Members of the Arizona Detention Working Group
(http://www.facebook.com/pages/Arizona-Detention-Working-Group/280858511963997)
are calling for the cancellation of the contract the Pinal County Jail
has with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The Pinal County Jail is run by Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.
Sheriff Babeu has recently been in the news over allegations by the
Phoenix New Times and ABC 15 that he has engaged in inappropriate
behavior with students from a boarding school he used to help manage in
Massachusetts
(http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2012-03-01/news/babeu-s-reckless-behavior-has-enmeshed-him-in-what-may-be-a-career-killing-scandal/).

Prior
to these recent revelations, the mistreatment of inmates was surfaced
in 2011 by a report from the ACLU which cited a number of human rights
violations. On the ACLU website
(http://acluaz.org/issues/immigrant-rights/2012-01/1693), the issues
cited were "inadequate medical care, insufficient hygiene supplies, no
contact visits with family, no outdoor recreation and verbal abuse by
jail personnel.

"These problems have persisted in the jail for
many years. For example, in the winter 2010, ICE transferred hundreds of
immigrant women out of PCJ after the women submitted petition letters
complaining of abusive treatment. In the spring 2011, men detained at
the same jail began a hunger strike to protest many of the same
problems."

In addition, they released a nearly forty page report
(http://www.acluaz.org/sites/default/files/documents/detention report
2011.pdf) detailing many of the abuses and shortcomings specifically
about Pinal County Jail. Some of the complaints detailed vulnerable
populations such as LGBT detainees who had been assaulted while in the
care of Babeu's prison system. In addition, there were numerous
complaints about sub-standard medical and mental health care.

On
September 7th, 2011, the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit
(http://www.acluaz.org/issues/prisoner-rights/2011-09/1159) against
Sheriff Paul Babeu accusing the Pinal County Jail of not allowing
inmates to receive books, magazines, or documents exceeding one page
long. According to the ACLU release about the lawsuit, one of the
plaintiffs, Paul Wright, editor of Prison Legal News, stated "Publishers
have a well-established First Amendment right to send their
publications and books to prisoners, and it is unfortunate that rather
than respect the rights of publishers to communicate with inmates
Sheriff Babeu continues to try to defend the indefensible by banning our
books and magazines."

I spoke with Leah Carnine in December 2011
at the third vigil and interviewed her about the conditions at Pinal
County Jail (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42IxI6DVkQA). Some examples
she gave were the lack of quality food, the lack of outdoor recreation
areas, medical neglect, and the lack of contact visits between inmates
and visitors. She mentioned that when these vigils were held, they would
lock down the jail while they were out in the parking lot.

Leah
suggested that at a minimum she would like to see a reorganization of
the way the facilities are run along with incorporating community
oversight. Leah mentioned that it should include an advisory board which
would keep track of the conditions, regulates, and evaluates to make
necessary changes. The advisory board would include input from people
outside of the system.

At Saturday's vigil, Dorien Ediger-Seto of
the Florence Project described that there were multiple facilities in
the area which housed immigration detainees. There were approximately
1,500 immigrant detainees in Florence and 600 in Pinal County Jail. She
stated that Pinal County Jail has the worst conditions of all of the
facilities.

Dorien went on to say, "Unless you are an attorney
or a clergy member, it is very difficult to get in for visits. Any
visits you will have are by phone with a video screen. The food is
really bad. Medical care is bad.

"That is the reason we decided
to make PCJ our target in this campaign. The other reason we really want
to talk about PCJ is because there is a really rich, strong history of
folks on the inside organizing for better conditions.

"Pinal
County Jail used to hold women and over the course of a couple of years,
the women organized themselves, wrote letters, petitions, describing
their experience inside. They sent them to the Florence Project, the
ACLU, and anyone they could think of.

"Ultimately, after two
rounds of this, PCJ was investigated. And mysteriously, a few months
later, the women were released or sent to Eloy. So we wanted to honor
that struggle, Today there are people organizing and going on hunger
strikes all the time that we don't hear about because they are so far
away. So we wanted to recognize that today."

Dorien has worked
with the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project
(http://www.firrp.org) since July 2010. As an intern in 2009, she
co-authored a thirty-five page paper detailing the abuses of
unaccompanied children by the Border Patrol
(http://www.firrp.org/media/BPAbuseReport.pdf). The Florence Project
provides free legal services to people detained by Immigration and
Customs Enforcement in Arizona.

Organizer Carlos Garcia said, "I
wanted to remind people that this may not seem like a normal protest
with a lot of us here, chanting and running around. It's just
significant how we took a whole Saturday to come out here to a place
that most of us didn't even know existed.

"Even some of us who
work on immigrant and migrant rights didn't know this place was here. We
often forget what these folks go through. Every person who is in here
has someone somewhere missing them.

"Their family members may be
in there or their family members may also be undocumented and they can
not come visit. There is no way that they have contact except by phone
which also costs money. They are trying to raise funds for lawyer fees
and so there is not much there."

Local Hip-Hop MC, Vpro Lific,
then performed several spoken word rhymes for the group. Vpro Lific has
been active in the Phoenix area with civil rights causes and is a
regular performer at local actions.

Following Vpro Lific was
local activist, Fernando Lopez. Fernando has been active working with
Puente Arizona, performs spoken word rhymes, and also is a photographer.
Recently, he spent a month inside Pinal County Jail and was at the
vigil to speak about his experiences.

He described it, "I was
just telling my friends daughter." She asked "How is it inside?"
Fernando replied, "Can you feel the wind right now, and the warmth of
the sun?" And she said, "Yeah." "Well those people can't feel that. We
are so privileged right now to be outside and to feel the wind. I think
everyone deserves that, right? The people in there are not able to feel
that way. Some of them have been like that for over two years."

"I
want to share a story. I don't talk about it very much. I've told a few
people. Three days before my court date, the seventh of July, it was
one of my cellies birthday. He was up for deportation and had been
locked up for over a year. He wanted to be in Mexico for his birthday
and that didn't happen because they didn't work weekends and it was a
holiday three day weekend.

"We organized a whole tank, about
fifty to sixty people. And we said we were all going to save our bread
and peanut butter and we were all going to buy soups. So the day we were
making the food, we were up early collecting food, collecting plates,
and all kinds of stuff. We got fifty or sixty soups. We even got sausage
and coffee. We just everything together in bags and with all the bread
and peanut butter we made a cake.

"It was really nice because we
had nine to twelve tables and even if they didn't have anything, we
were inviting everyone to join us, and eat with us. The week before a
few people had just come in there. And when you get in there you feel
alone and you don't know anybody. A few of us had just come in there and
a few of us had court that week and so we were wishing everyone good
luck. So we prepared everything. We lined up all the tables.

"And
then they locked us up. We were so ready to have our dinner and we were
really mad because we had been working for this dinner since last week.
It was some kind of sergeant who was kind of new. He replaced someone
who was really bad. He got so many complaints that he got moved.

"This
new guy was really nice. He came up to us and said as long as you guys
keep it clean and quiet you can do it. So we did it. We had all these
soups and this big cake. We were all lined up and sitting down. So we
all sat in there and there was this guy from Jamaica. We used to call
him Brother. He was a Christian man. He did all these prayers. He did a
prayer in English and another guy in Spanish.

"Honestly, I can
tell you it was one of the most beautiful moments of my life. There are
not only brown people. There are Asian people, people from Vietnam,
Jamaica, and Germany. It was all kinds of people, united in just one
community.

"We all sat and ate and it was so powerful. These
people still have hope. It's just the situation of having to be in
there. It is all they are thinking. They can not talk about much
anything else.

"Some people just want to be sleeping all day
because they are so depressed. They also have homes and families and
people they love that are outside.

"This guy that just had his
birthday, he left his kid when he was just two or four months old. Just
imagine. I'm not a parent but just imagine not being able to see your
kid for months, even years. And those people have hope that someone is
doing something outside and I guess that's us."

Fernando also
described how that he was writing letters to someone he had known
inside. Fernando asked his friend to try to get a list of the A numbers
(unique ID numbers given to immigration detainees) of the other people
inside so that they could write letters to them as part of a pen pal
program. The guards found out about it and took away his list and
restricted his phone and library privileges as a result.

He
mentioned that we all have it good outside and forget that there are
people inside who need our help. We have the privilege to see the sunset
and the people inside do not. So we at least have the opportunity to
ask for something better for them.